John-Lewis put Grimsby ahead after slotting home Alex Rodman's cut-back from the by-line.

The goalscorer almost put through his own net in the second half when his defensive header from Kenny Davis's corner looped over the bar.

Andy Cook had the chance to kill off the game but his lob over Nathan McDonald from 20 yards sailed wide.

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Grimsby Town manager Paul Hurst told BBC Radio Humberside:

"Obviously delighted with three points however we managed to get them.

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Post-match: Grimsby boss Hurst

"It was a hard fought game, I thought we started the game really well and second half we were put under some pressure but we defended well.

"I'll give them a little bit of credit but at the end of the day it's their job. I said to them before they can use it as an excuse if they want or you can get on with the job and put on a performance.

"Parts of that performance were good and parts of it were not.

"I like to think a lot of the time you can use training and the games to forget about that, sort of lose yourself and forget all of your problems and your worries and that's what I'm kind of asking them to do at the minute."

Braintree manager Alan Devonshire told BBC Essex:

"First half I thought we were very poor. Second half was better, we huffed and puffed but I never felt we were confident of scoring.

"We got in great positions but the final ball wasn't the best, I didn't feel we had the quality to finish it off.

"I'm bitterly disappointed because I felt we should have got something today.

"We didn't have that many shots, we had a lot of opportunities in certain areas. It didn't really drop for us."